London with DH, DS3,DD9wks on the cheap! Help!

[eggontoast]

We want to take our son to Natural History M. and the Parklife exhibit about dinosaurs.

We looked up a hotel - £600 one night!

How can we do it on the cheap?

Look at the chains rather than the stand-alone hotels, eg Quality hotels, Travelodges. Friends stayed somewhere in Chelsea Harbour a while back - will look it up

I have heard Youth Hostels mentioned on here before for a cheap London option. I know you can get good family rooms and pre-book. I don't know the locations though, should be easy enough to find.

And if you are training it in then definately get a family railcard and book weeks in advance - fares are often half the price when booked ahead

Did a quick search on yha, this on for example is around £85 a night for a family room in March

Thanks to all.

crumbs where have you been lokking???
try late rooms and last minute.com

I found a website - thetrainline.com found tickets £140 and hotel £32 3star. Does this sound reasonable now?

Do a houseswap! NCT does them, you don't have to be a member. Just pay a one off fee for the year (£45?) and then arrange as many swaps as you like. There are quite a few London members.

I don't think anyone would like to swap - I live near Blackpool .

Also, I could not stand the idea of someone else in my bed!

Which hotel have you found? You need to be careful with some of the budget ones

Thanks for the concern docorhate, but, dh has decided, even if we do it on the cheap, we cannot really afford it .

Maybe next year .